U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear gun rights challenges

Investing.com -- The U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear two appeals challenging the legality of state restrictions on assault-style rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines on Monday. The cases, which were passed up, could have given the justices a chance to further expand gun rights.

The court rejected appeals against a ban in Maryland on powerful semi-automatic rifles such as AR-15s and a restriction in Rhode Island on the possession of ammunition feeding devices holding more than 10 rounds. The lower courts had dismissed arguments that these measures violate the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms."

Three conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, disagreed with the court’s decision not to hear the cases. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a statement accompanying the Maryland case, expressed sympathy for the argument made by the challengers that semiautomatic AR-15s are in common use by "law-abiding citizens and therefore are protected by the Second Amendment." Kavanaugh predicted that the Supreme Court will address the AR–15 issue soon.

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, often takes an expansive view of the Second Amendment in a nation deeply divided over how to address firearms violence, including numerous mass shootings. The court expanded gun rights in landmark rulings in 2008, 2010, and a 2022 case that made it harder to defend gun restrictions under the Second Amendment. These restrictions had to be "consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation."

The challengers in the two cases contended that states and courts are ignoring precedents that make clear that the Second Amendment protects weapons in "common use." Maryland enacted its ban on military-style "assault weapons" such as the AR-15 and AK-47 in 2013, following a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The law carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.

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